vacation: accomplished

Cardo just went back to work after two weeks of vacation. We are just starting to try to return to a normal (for us) rhythm. Because I have a tendency to never get around to posting about what feels like a big outing, I'll post some highlights from our stops.

Cardo and I planned a series of surprises for Pic. We asked her if she wanted to know where we were going or if she wanted to be surprised and she chose the latter.

So, for our whirlwind vacation (Cardo was off work for two weeks, but we squeezed all of our big activities into one):


On our first day in California, we headed over to Briones Regional Park for a quickish (one hour) walk. There were cows! And cow poop!



Our first big surprise was the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco. I'm glad this was first. Pic wasn't at all thrilled about the guided tour I wanted to go on, so we only stuck around for five minutes. Then, we toured on our own. They provide little booklets with pictures and descriptions of the flora in each room. Pic decided we'd seek out the plants featured in the booklet, which ended up being much more fun.



Just one of the many awesome plants: a tortoise plant.


The highlight of the trip? The San Francisco Zoo. We've been here once before. Pic has been looking forward to a return trip for quite a long time. I enjoyed myself, but I couldn't help but wonder about the whole concept of a zoo. It seemed like the animals were very well cared for, but what effect does it have on animals who "belong" outside of such a structure? The animals are fed, instead of able to hunt for food. They live in very small groups. Hmm. Anyhow...


Surprise! Open your eyes, Pic, we're at the zoo!



Pic's favorite animal: the polar bear. Polar bears, and giraffes, have purple tongues, fyi.


The next day, we visited our second two surprises: the San Francisco children's museum and the Aquarium of the Bay.


At the museum, learning about how much strategy is involved in using the bathroom in outer space.



I was running out of picture-taking steam by the time we got to the aquarium, but I promise we were there.


We went home for a quick minute before heading out again for camping for a couple of days. My camera battery was just about dead, so it was taking forever for the camera to actually capture a picture.


One of the kids made this structure and then all of the kids took turns jumping over it (and all of the adults cringed with every jump, hoping they'd clear the sharp angle).

All right, so those were the highlights! Perhaps I'll post more pictures, but I'm not holding myself to that.